Fraudulent activities worry SA cybercafes

SOUTH African cybercafé operators are concerned about incidents of fraudulent activities at their internet cafes. The operators said they were struggling to cope with such incidents, which they said had peaked over the years.

“Despite warnings against such activities, some customers are failing to comply with regulations that warn against fraudulent activities,” said Ike Chiezegou, who owns a cybercafé in Hillbrow in Johannesburg. He said culprits caught engaging in such activities were reported to police.

Buhle Hadebe, an official at an internet café at Yeoville also raised concern.

“We have a decent customer base. Unfortunately, some of them do not use the internet for research but to produce fraudulent documents such as bank cheques and asylum papers,” she said.

Internet usage has grown significantly over the years in South Africa where the computer technology industry has recorded significant growth. Abia Oparaku said besides fraudulent activities, some customers at his cybercafé were downloading risky programmes.

“Despite stern warnings, some of our customers are downloading such software as Harvester, Demailer, Spider and Email finder among others and this leaves our computers at risk,” he said–ITNewsAfrica.